A one-day event

Friday, October 1, 2010
670 Albany Street, first floor auditorium.
Boston University Medical Campus

8:30 a.m. continental breakfast

9 a.m. to noon, lecture and panel discussion

Free and open to the public

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Directions to campus

David Cutler, Ph.D, is Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University. Professor Cutler's research is in health and public economics. He served on the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration, advised the Presidential campaign of Bill Bradley, and was senior health care advisor to the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Among other affiliations, Professor Cutler has held positions with the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Currently, Professor Cutler is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Professor Cutler is the author of "Your Money Or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Health Care System" published by Oxford University Press. Cutler was recently named one of the 30 people who could have a powerful impact on healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine and one of the 50 most influential men aged 45 and younger by Details magazine.

Alice A. Tolbert Coombs, M.D., F.C.C.P., is President of the Massachusetts Medical Society as well as a critical care specialist at South Shore Hospital and an anesthesiologist with South Shore Anesthesia Associates. She has been long active in organized medicine, having served in the last three years as President-Elect, Vice-President, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Massachusetts Medical Society, respectively.

She is a member of the American Medical Association's Commission to Eliminate Healthcare Disparities. She served formerly as Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine's Patient Care Assessment Committee, as a member of the Massachusetts State Commission to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Healthcare Disparities, and chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society's Committee on Ethnic Diversity. She was also a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System, established to evaluate the payment system and recommend reforms that will provide incentives for cost-effective and patient-centered care.

Andrew Dreyfus was recently named president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer with 2.5 million members. He will take over the position on Sept. 7. In his new role, Dreyfus will participate as a panelist in the 2010 William J. Bicknell Lectureship in Public Health, replacing previously scheduled panelist William C. Van Faasen, interim president and CEO of BC/BS.

Most recently, Dreyfus served as Executive Vice President of Health Care Services for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. In that position, he was responsible for the company's health and wellness, performance measurement and improvement, and provider contracting divisions. He also led the company's health care collaborative initiatives to improve the quality and safety of health care in Massachusetts.

Andrew previously served as the first President of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, which works to expand access and reduce barriers to health care for Massachusetts residents. During his tenure, the Foundation awarded nearly $17 million in grants to community organizations and launched a series of policy initiatives, including the "Roadmap to Coverage", which contributed to the successful passage of the state's landmark 2006 Health Reform Law.

Dreyfus was a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System, and serves on the board of the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, the Harvard Risk Management Foundation, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley and the Board of Advisors for the Brigham & Women's Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dreyfus served as Executive Vice President of the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA). At MHA, he led the development of nationally recognized initiatives to expand access to coverage, and improve quality and patient safety.

His previous professional experience includes serving as the Massachusetts Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and as Director of Operations and Director of Communications in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services.

Kate Walsh is President and CEO of Boston Medical Center, not-for-profit, 639-licensed bed, academic medial center with a community-based focus and primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. BMC has approximately 5,000 employees, 1,300 physicians and an annual operating budget of roughly $1.5 billion. Prior to her appointment at BMC in March 2010, Walsh served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Brigham and Women's Hospital for five years. During her tenure, Brigham and Women's Hospital moved its patient satisfaction scores to the 95th percentile of benchmark institutions nationally, produced strong operating results based on consistent ambulatory and inpatient growth and set a new standard in patient-focused multidisciplinary care with the opening of the Carl J and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center. She also served previously as the chief operating officer for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.